How Not to Land A Plane in Antarctica

On October 8, 1970, a Lockheed Constellation aircraft flown by the US Navy in support of Operation Deep Freeze (the official name for the military support to the Antarctic Program) was carrying 80 passengers from Christchurch, New Zealand to McMurdo Station.  It was the first flight of the 1970 season and the weather that day was, well, not conducive to landing.  The aircraft, named "Pegasus", made six low passes and the pilot attempted to land in zero visibility with winds gusting to 40 miles per hour in 90-degree crosswinds.  No one was killed; only 5 people on board were mildly injured.  The starboard wing was torn off completely and the tail unit was broken.

The plane was attempting to land at Williams Field, which is several miles away from this area on the permanent ice shelf.  The crash site is now adjacent to our permanent ice runway called (not coincidentally) "Pegasus" and serves as a destination for occasional after-work morale trips.

The environmental group has plans to remediate this site (meaning:  disassembling the plane and shipping the parts off-continent), so I decided that it was finally time to get out there.  Getting to Pegasus field involves a one hour drive in a Delta, which can be bumpy and uncomfortable, but there was nothing else going on this past Saturday evening, the skies cleared up on the way out and I got to sit in the front cab, so it was a really pleasant road trip.

Pictures of the Pegasus Plane.  They had a lot of snow this winter, so the plane was even more buried than prior years.

The view of the Trans-Antarctic Range from the Pegasus site.  So peaceful...